Prospective attendees of Blizzard Entertainment's annual BlizzCon show should make haste to the BlizzCon official website, which offers numerous details pertaining to this year's event. Taking place over October 10 and 11 in Anaheim, California, BlizzCon will feature extensive World of WarCraft, StarCraft II and Diablo III information. Tickets for the event go on sale August 11.

Thus far, the website offers instructions for fans looking to buy tickets, as well as information on a few of the developer panels, tournaments and contests that will be held at the show. The newest post provides details regarding what attendees might find in their goodie bags upon their arrival to the Blizzard Entertainment extravaganza.

For many PC gamers, QuakeCon is bigger than Christmas. The joy of meeting up with friends, guzzling pure caffeine, gorging on junk food and fragging until the wee hours of the morning is a thing of beauty -- especially considering event attendance is free!

Unfortunately, the trek to Texas is too long and arduous for many, resulting in lost opportunities for fun times galore. Don't worry; Big Download's got your back. We were in attendance this year to pick our way through sleep-deprived gamers cuddled up with their keyboards (minus the drool, it was actually quite touching) and discarded pizza boxes to sample some of the gaming products on display.

Compiled here are our announcements from the show, including new bits from John Carmack's annual keynote address, as well as hands-on and impressions articles. Early next week, we'll feature a write-up from a hardcore PC gamer and id Software fan who had never attended the event before -- namely, me.

Read on for all the goods!

Welcome to Freeware Friday, a weekly column showcasing excellent games that you can play free of charge!

After a few weeks hiatus, Freeware Friday is back and better than ever! And this week, it's to showcase possibly one of the best freeware racing games of all time. Yeah, I know, normally I do action and platforming and whatnot, but this game is incredible to no end! It's freely available just about anywhere, has excellent community support, great modding tools, and is just downright incredibly fun to play. The fact that it's on Steam (meaning you can obtain it incredibly easy anywhere) just furthers its incredible gameplay. I am, of course, talking about the phenomenon that is Trackmania Nations Forever.

The more popular a game, the more stringent its fan boys will be about directions deemed as off the beaten path. A Blizzard Entertainment job advertisement posted earlier this morning brought hope to many fans disappointed in the art style being employed by Diablo III. It would seem those protestors didn't take Blizzard's promise to stick by the art direction seriously, as Blizzard has responded to speculation surrounding the job ad.

Explaining that the previous art director had resigned to pursue other interest, a Blizzard representative told Shacknews that whoever fills the position will not affect Diablo III's style. "We're really pleased with the look and feel ... [of] Diablo III, and the new person we bring on board will work with the other artists on the team to maintain the art style moving forward," the representative said.

Those complaining about Diablo III's slightly lighter, more vibrant look claim that the aesthetics do not adhere to the series' dark tone allegedly maintained in the hit sequel and its Lord of Destruction expansion pack. What they seem to have forgotten is that many areas of Diablo II, such as the majority of Acts II and V, were quite a bit brighter than the darker, gothic atmosphere featured in the original game.

In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Valve Software VP Doug Lombardi revealed that if talks of acquisition came about from industry giants such as Electronic Arts, he would be "happy to have that conversation."

Since the merger between Activision and Vivendi Games that resulted in Activision Blizzard, arguably the industry's greatest force in terms of publishing, the gaming world is one that is beginning to revolve around mergers and acquisitions. Electronic Arts, once the undisputed juggernaut of the publishing world, would certainly consider themselves blessed if they were to acquire Valve. In fact, given the relationship between Valve and EA, who will be publishing Left 4 Dead when it releases this November, such talks seem likely.

Describing the relationship between Valve and Electronic Arts as "really good," Lombardi praised EA for their understanding of Steam, perhaps Valve's greatest contribution to PC gaming. "EA was very progressive about saying, 'We understand who you guys are. We understand what Steam is. We don't want Steam to go away,'" said Lombardi.

NPD has released computer game sales results for the week ending July 26, which you can view after the break. No longer king of the list, Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo Battle Chest has slipped two spots to number six. That's still impressive, considering its contents, those being Diablo, Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, were released in 1997, 2000 and 2001, respectively.

In addition to the sixth spot on NPD's list, Blizzard's World of WarCraft: Battle Chest sits pretty at number four, World of WarCraft holds at number seven, and the first WoW expansion, The Burning Crusade, rests at number eight.

Also seeing receiving renewed interest is Sid Meier's Civilization IV, possibly due to the recent release of Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution on Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo DS. Reigning supreme is Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice.

Immersion Games, the designers of the PhysX-powered CELLFACTOR: Revolution, have unveiled a new studio based in Guadalajara Mexico, reports GamesIndustry.biz..

The new studio's location was chosen to support the Immersion studio currently operating in Bogota, Columbia. In addition, the Mexico Immersion studio will perpetuate the country's burgeoning games industry by exploiting "initiatives from the government," according to GI.biz. Finally, due to Immersion Games' continued growth, the new studio will also help carry an increased workload, as well as create an original IP.

Also the developer of the PS3 title Monster Madness, Immersion Games is currently at work on two unannounced projects: an FPS, and an arcade title.

Team Fortress 2 designer Jakob Jungels recently updated the official TF2 blog with exciting information: beginning with the next game update, the team will unveil new environments created using a new toolset.

The decision to create new item types came from the variety of character achievements introduced in the last couple of upgrades. As achievement details become more involved, the designers wanted great environment diversity to spice up the gameplay. "As we create more and more maps with these achievement packs," Jungels wrote, "we want our level designers to have more to work with in terms of giving their settings a unique look."

In order to diversity new levels, the Team Fortress 2 designers asked themselves questions concerning matters such as how to evolve existing assets without creating too many new set pieces (thereby increasing development time), creating unique experiences, and how to ensure environment versatility so that only important changes, rather than time-consuming superficial details, are made in future updates.

At the young, impressionable, and stupid age of 13, I remember being influenced by Nintendo's horrid Play it Loud television commercials. The sight of gamers like myself rocking out while playing Mortal Kombat II, Super Mario World, Star Fox, Super Street Fighter II and other popular titles at full volume looked totally fun, a guaranteed way to increase the immersion factor of my favorite Super NES games and rebel against the serious, studious parents who, according to Nintendo, wanted to limit my precious gaming time.

Those of you who, like me, attempted to play "it" as loudly as possible most likely recall that the commercials were all hype -- loud, painful, and unrewarding. While pleasant at lower volumes, the sound on the SNES, while not as grating as the underwater gurgling emitted by the Sega Genesis, were muffled, crackly, and distorted at medium to high levels. Even worse, playing it loud didn't exactly sit well with parents. Sure, the commercials showed authority figures staring in disbelief at their wild teenage gamer children, but they forgot to show the part where those crazy kids got grounded for playing games at ridiculous volumes.

Quality sound systems have come into their own since then, with many snazzy setups readily affordable and worth every penny due to the theater-like atmosphere they provide. Couple that with the fact that this generation of games is actually meant to be played at a higher volume than five or six, and it's easy to understand why many gamers value their sound systems above pricey graphics cards.

The Phillips amBX system is more than just a quality audio experience. Equipped with speakers, lights, fans, and a wrist pad offering a more dynamic level of force feedback, amBX is deservedly being billed as a total immersion system, one that won't just bring pleasure to your ears, but to every part of your being involved in the gaming experience.

Those of you who preferred the frantic pace of Doom and Doom II when compared to the slower, survival horror-esque Doom 3 are in luck: the fourth Doom game (which will not be called Doom 4) will return to the more chaotic pace of the originals, Shacknews confirmed in an interview with id genius John Carmack.

Carmack acknowledged the primary complaints of Doom 3, admitting that not being able to wield weapons concurrently with a flashlight, as well as a constant stream of closet monsters, provided the impetus to cancel a survival horror game titled Darkness that id was developing.

Will the id Tech 5-powered Doom once again feature rooms filled with angry Imps and snarling zombies? Most likely. In Doom, players will certainly experience a few tense moments with only one bullet and hordes of enemies to kill, but overall, "you have to be blowing demons all to hell all around you," explained Carmack. The best way to do that? Guns. Lots of guns.

During his annual QuakeCon address, John Carmack divulged his reason for the resurrection of Quake III: Arena via the free web-based shooter Quake Live. Quake III represented the purity of an old school, deathmatch-oriented shooter, Carmack explained. While both fun to develop and to play -- Carmack proudly stated that he used to place first in the in-house Quake III tournaments, then humbly admitted he only survived the first round of a recent Quake Live session -- such a package would not do well as a $50 retail product.

Enter Quake Live, a free-to-play reincarnation of Quake III that can be accessed from any computer with a broadband connection and a web browser. But given Carmack's love of Quake III, Carmack answered the question he must have known was on the mind of all in attendance: might there one day be a Quake Arena 2?

Possibly -- but only if Quake Live fares well. "I'd say probably the success of Quake Live is going to determine whether or not we do another Quake Arena project," said Carmack during his speech.

Even if Quake Live does well, another Quake project would be far down the road. Though id is divided into multiple teams, Carmack has said that Rage is his first priority, and after that, the studio will no doubt gear up for a heavy marketing campaign revolving around its next Doom title. All that combined with Raven's focus on the forthcoming Wolfenstein equals Quake Live as the next big title for Quake-aholics.

Here at the 2008 QuakeCon, media is flying faster than BYOC gamers bouncing across Quake Live's jump pad-laden arenas. New trailers have been released, Wolfenstein screenshots have no doubt already graced your monitor with their presence, and just today, id Software released a massive number of new Rage screenshots.

Two of them, actually.

Yes, only two, but their aesthetic sexiness boasts the age-old "quality over quantity" mantra. Rage is in development at id Software and published by Electronic Arts, and will be released for PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PS3 "when it's done."

Given the oft-mistaken view of Electronic Arts' as one of the industry's two evil empires (with Microsoft being the other company to hold the dubious honor), many gamers and industry specialists were quite surprised when id Software named EA as the publisher for their upcoming Rage FPS. Despite the view of EA, many were surprised due to id's longstanding publication relationship with Activision, who has published a number of the independent developer's most notable titles.

When asked about the publishing deal with EA during his QuakeCon 2008 keynote, id's famous lead engineer John Carmack smiled and said not too read too much into it and that, essentially, business was business. Carmack explained that id had shopped Rage to a number of publishers three different times. Each time, publishers such as Activision, EA, and Sega had been impressed and had offered high sums, but id had chosen to do more work and come back later with another pitch. Carmack noted his contentment that his company was one of the only independent studios who could afford to take such a position.

After reaching a milestone dictating the game could be sufficiently shown, Carmack asked all potential bidders to come forward with their final proposals. The result: EA won, plain and simple. Carmack made a special point of noting that the publishing deal only included Rage. EA could very well be signed to publish Doom, but id will likely repeat the bidding process with that title as they did with Rage.

When John Carmack speaks, gamers tend to listen, even if talk of ray-tracing and wire-thin optimization processes flies right over most of their heads. During his keynote at this year's QuakeCon festivities, the software engineering guru prevented attendees from daydreaming of returning to the BYOC area's 24-hour fragging by dropping one particularly juicy tidbit of information: id Tech 5, the engine powering id's upcoming Rage FPS, is just about done.

Carmack spoke about his role at id, explaining that he pops into Doom and Wolfenstein meetings to ensure that everything is going well before returning to his desk and focusing on the project that consumes the majority of his time: Rage.

The development of id Tech 5 began three years ago and is proceeding smoothly -- so smoothly that Carmack feels he won't be discussing its development at QuakeCon 2010, but rather its application toward Doom, the project that will make full use of id Tech 5 after Rage puts it through its paces.

Relevant Files:

Download the HD QuakeCon 2008 Wolfenstein teaser trailer

Team Fortress 2 is one of the most enduringly great multiplayer shooters of all time. This is in no small way a result of the many frequent updates the game receives to fix glitches, balance maps, and just in general make the game better. Another update has been released, and this one fixes a lot of problems. Some example of the things fixed are:

• Players can no longer fire through grates, walls, or other thin obstacles
• Players killing themselves now gives the kill credit to the last player that damaged them
• Kritzkrieg now works on servers with criticals turned off
• Backburner no longer gives a health bonus

This is only a small sample of the bountiful fixes and tweaks in the new update. To download the patch, simply log on to Steam. Full patch notes can be found at Steam's site.